Field of the Invention
The present disclosure is generally related to neighborhood-aware networks (NANs).
Description of the Related Art
Advances in technology have resulted in smaller and more powerful computing devices. For example, there currently exist a variety of portable personal computing devices, including wireless computing devices, such as portable wireless telephones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and paging devices that are small, lightweight, and easily carried by users. More specifically, portable wireless telephones, such as cellular telephones and interne protocol (IP) telephones, can communicate voice and data packets over wireless networks. Further, many such wireless telephones include other types of devices that are incorporated therein. For example, a wireless telephone can also include a digital still camera, a digital video camera, a digital recorder, and an audio file player. Also, such wireless telephones can process instructions, such as a web browser application that can be used to access the Internet. Memories, such as a memory within a wireless telephone or other electronic device, may store instructions in addition to other data.
As wireless devices become less expensive and more common, networks can experience increased traffic, potentially burdening the networks, slowing performance of the wireless devices, and frustrating users. Accordingly, network setup and network resource allocation (e.g., how traffic is routed within the network) are important considerations in designing and implementing wireless devices and wireless networks.